Wintry Wanaka

Although not officially winter here just yet, the temperatures are. Yesterdays max at 8 C and overnight min at -1 C with tomorrow snow expected down to 300m (and apparently Wanaka is at 300m above MSL) with temperatures 2 C max and 0 C min.

A very nice place to take it easy and check out the bike trails around the lake. Picture below is the outlet river from Lake Wanaka along the eastern trail. Most striking along the paths is the architecture of the homes around here. There are hardly any standard type legoland homes around here, with nearly all the buildings from the last 20 years clearly under the direction of architects.

The outlook from the kitchen of the very accomodating style of Matterhorn during the afternoon (with the snow tipped mountains a few kms away) and the other from the next level up at dusk. Nice and quiet here with even less people than earlier in the week. Apparently May is low season for here, being midway between summer and ski season. Tracey (who is running the show here) noted also that the incorrect values published on their website(overpriced) for staying here probably isn't helping things either! Naturally a few quick tips on remedying that one and getting IAC to remove the rate limiting due to a cap being reached.


Despite being cold, its mostly sunny skies with a lot of cumulus floating on by slowly in the still conditions. It seems the routine here is that the cloud builds up and the breezes kick in the afternoon and then rains overnight.

Continuing on to stay at Matterhorn South until the fronts pass over NZ and then do some paragliding with the thermals. In the meantime Tracey has offered her car so I can go and check out the surrounding area here. I'll probably take her up on that offer and find out where the ski fields are for when they open next month. Then if I can see a few days straight of clear skies head on down to Queenstown and Milford Sound for a quick peek.